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Posts Tagged ‘business website’
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
There is no one who knows as much about local SEO as Matt McGee. This post on SEOing your site for local traffic proves it. At the heart of local SEO is ensuring that your site visitors know how to find you and to do that you need to include local place names on your website. The best place to do that is on your About page or, if you have one, your Directions page. Specifically, Matt recommends:
- Including your business’s exact address
- Repeat your street name, city name, and state a couple of times
- Use both your state name spelled out and the postal abbreviation
- Mention your specific neighborhood name
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Use a local landmark
Those are all great suggestions and the example that he uses to illustrate it is this:
XYZ Widgets is located in the Shadow Trails Shopping Center on 4th Avenue in the North Hills area of Happyville, Washington. Our address is 425 4th Avenue, Suite 201, Happyville, WA, 99999.
Additionally, you can include a graphic map pointing out exactly how to find your place as well. You can use Google Maps or the widget that he talks about in his blog post, but I’d recommend a strip map similar to one that you’d draw on a napkin to show people how to find you. Make sure that you label the streets on the map and put a big star, X, or other symbol on the map to show precisely where you are located in relation to local landmarks. Make sure you label your map with a locally SEOd alt tag.
If your business is a rural business then you might include your county or parish and/or township name as well. Include as many details as you can think of to help people know exactly where your business is located. If your main entrance is in the back of the building then include that information in a fashion similar to this:
Use the back entrance facing Canal Street. There is parking on the side of the building near Lake Avenue. Please DO NOT use the front door, which faces Demolition Boulevard.
If you use those kinds of clear descriptions on your Directions page then people will find you much easier and you’ll be SEOing your website for local terms. Also, include your street address in the footer of every page on your website. That will also go a long way to giving you strong local SEO.
Tags: business website, directions, local SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Syndicated articles are a great way to add content to your website, but there’s also another great use of syndicated articles that will benefit your small business, and that’s when you syndicate your own content and submit them as articles for other websites and e-newsletters.
You don’t have to be a great writer to write a short article about information you know very well. You don’t even have to write it yourself, but don’t let all those years of small business knowledge and insight go to waste.
Syndicating articles give you two advantages: you to get noticed by search engines through links or when e-newsletters get archived as web pages, and it helps spread the word that they should check out your website.
Should You Write the Article or Hire it Out?
Who says you have to write it? Not all small business people have a way with the pen, so hire it out. Talk into a tape recorder or have someone take notes. Is there someone in your office who writes your emails and does a darn good job? If they can write a decent email, they can write a short article. You can hire someone online, post it on Craig’s List, or call up your local college. You’ll get lots of takers if you tell them you’re paying $20.00 an hour, which is all the time they’ll need.
To get started, visit some free article sites and read the content. There are lots of “how to” articles, as well as “fix a problem” articles. As a small business owner, these types of customer based problems are something you’re used to handling.
How to Write a Simple Article:
State the problem, tell a quick story about someone who needed your help (change the name) offer 3-5 solutions, and wrap up with how that person in your story is doing great all because they followed these simple instructions. Keep your articles to about 250-500 words, and use conversational language.
Remember: State your site name near the top of the article and place your site logo near the top as well. Include a link on the logo that takes them directly to your site. Try to post a link to your site within the body of the article. Make sure that link contains a keyword, but you will have to make sure that whatever article submission site you use will allow links within the article body.
End the article with a bio box, or an “about us” box. Again, it should contain a keyword link back to your site and a logo that also contains a link. Be sure to use the ALT text in the ![]() tag,
Keep a library on your own website of all the articles you’ve written. State that viewers are welcome to use these articles if they ask your permission. Ask that the content not be changed, that the logos, links, and bio information be included, and that all links must use the standard HTML tags.
Your goal is to use your years of experience to establish yourself as an expert and to reach your potential customers. They’ll be be so impressed with your syndicated article that they follow the link or the logo right back to your small business site.
Tags: business website, link building, synciated articles
Posted in Business Writing, SEO for Small Business, Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, Uncategorized, link building, search engines, website development | No Comments »
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
We know that link building is one of the best ways to boost your business site`s SEO, and I`ve talked several times about it here on this blog. However, there are still many areas left unexplored that you can use to build up backlinks and traffic for your website.
For the most part, we think of link building as having to do with text links, so forums, blog comments, etc. are the foundation of most marketing attempts. But if you look at what people are looking at online, it`s not all text. In fact, the majority of web surfers these days are watching videos and searching for images. Are you making use of this?
Video Link Building
You can build up links by putting videos on sharing sites like YouTube, Revver, and other similar sites. Using your keywords, when appropriate, in the tags will help people find you on the search engines. Then, include a link back to your site in your profile, or if permitted, in the video description.
Image Link Building
If you have images, be they graphs, photos or sketches, they can be uploaded to image hosting sites such as Flickr where you can add keywords to the tags and descriptions and a link, as well. This is yet another useful form of effective link building. Also, making sure that your photos are linked to other pages on your site can help build deep links and is a technique that is not often used.
Link building is something every small business owner should be using. It`s a vital part of working with the internet and can be a huge boost to your business site`s SEO.
Tags: business website, link building, SEO
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Friday, October 31st, 2008
The rules of SEO are always changing, but you have to remember that there are a few things that never change. While black hat techniques might work for a short period of time, they are always discovered and action taken against them.
The one thing that does work, no matter what the rules are, is good quality, real websites that offer information that people can use. Well-written content and information is a timeless classic that you`ll find will tend to keep you in fairly stable rankings.
That doesn`t mean you shouldn`t focus on SEO, but remember that making people happy is just as important. If no one likes your site, they`ll just click away and all the SEO in the world won`t help you get more sales. See, there`s more to having a business online than just getting a load of traffic, you need to keep that traffic around, too.
Remember, SEO is important, but you`ll do best if you combine your efforts, using SEO techniques while writing for the people who are visiting your site.
Tags: business website, SEO, visitors
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Friday, October 10th, 2008
There`s nothing more exciting or better for business than having your business website as number one on Google. With the right SEO techniques, you can really boost your ranking. Here are a few that you can put into use for great results.
- Research those keywords. It`s important to pick the right keywords. General keywords just aren`t going to cut it when you start competing with the top results in Google. You can check out how to actually do this type of research here.
- Use an SEO website template. This is vital for optimum results. Just using keywords in your content isn`t going be enough in this competitive world of search engine optimization.
- Use keywords as blog categories. Keywords aren`t just for content and titles . . . using them in the blog categories that you set is just as useful and can boost your search engine ranking.
- Add keywords to anchor text. Whenever you use deep linking (which should be frequently) make sure that you use keywords in the anchor text to add an SEO boost.
Increasing your ranking in the search engine results for your chosen keywords and keyword phrases is something that needs to be done on a consistent basis. Some of these techniques will allow you to do them once and leave it (website template), while others will require that you continue using them to keep your site highly ranked. SEO is an important business strategy.
Tags: business website, keywords, linking, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
SEO is a very important part of having a website and you should definitely do your best to ensure that you are using all areas of your site to boost your rankings. Search engines love optimized websites and though you may be using meta tags and proper keyword density in your content, there is still a lot to learn! Here are 5 tips to keep your SEO going strong.
- Make your URLs SEO friendly. You can do this by using your keywords in your page URLs, rather than just numbers or a random jumble of letters and numbers.
- Set up a site map. A site map basically tells the search engine spiders how to get to all the various pages on your website, which, in turn, helps you by boosting rankings.
- Use original content. Writing your own content is the best way to ensure this. If you have duplicate articles on your website, you´ll be penalized by the search engines and that´s just not good.
- Consider blogging. While a website is a great way to gain traffic for your business, blogs are just more SEO friendly because of the constantly updated content. It could be a good move to start one up for your business.
- Update your content. Not only is it a bad SEO technique to let your content stagnate, but your clients won´t come back if there is never anything new!
These are just a few of the more overlooked areas of SEO that you can use on your business website. It´s a great way to increase your SEO and move ahead of the competition in the search engines.
Caroline
Small Business Mavericks
Back to the Blog
Tags: business website, search engines, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
SEO is one of the most important things you can use to grow your business online. In fact, if you aren´t using SEO tactics, chances are you aren´t seeing a lot of growth at all.
When you put your business website up, whether your actual business is online or in the real world, it needs to attract the attention of the search engines. There are several ways to build your SEO.
Keywords. This is a concept that nearly everyone already knows. You use keywords in your titles, meta tags and content to help get the search engines coming in.
Content. By having frequently updated content, you can rest assured that the search engines will be coming back on a regular basis, which will help you move up in the search engines, as well.
Links. Getting links to your website or blog from other parts of the web can really help boost your SEO, as well, especially if they are from well-ranked sites themselves.
SEO is very important to the growth of your online business, so make sure it is a priority for you. If you aren´t sure how to go about setting your site up for maximum SEO, then you can hire someone to take care of it all for you.
Tags: business website, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
While you may be able to set up your own business website for internet marketing, it isn´t always the best idea. At least, not unless you know what you´re doing! A lot of research is needed since website design is a huge topic and you want to make sure that your business is going to get the most out of your internet marketing.
Here are a few things you need to watch out for:
- Broken links. These happen when a website or page that you link to no longer exists. It´s a good idea to check these on a fairly frequent basis.
- Slow load times. Often, if you don´t know much about website design, you end up with too many graphics or a weird banner that causes a page to load very slowly. Most people won´t wait much time, so you´ll want to make sure your website appears pretty quickly.
- Non-optimized content. All your website content needs to be written for both the search engines and your readers. If you are only optimizing for one or the other, you´re missing out on some major internet marketing opportunities.
- Stale content. This is why blogs are so popular, they always have fresh material! However, if you aren´t interested in a blog, you can still update your static business website on a regular basis to keep it fresh and bring visitors back over and over again.
Internet marketing for your business website isn´t impossible on your own, but it is something that can be learned. Make sure you subscribe to blogs like this one to learn more and find out everything possible to ensure that your website design is the best that it can be, whether that means spending a lot of time reading up on it, or hiring someone else. Your business website can be seen by anyone in the world, so you want it to be good!
Tags: business website, internet marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 31st, 2008
In this day and age, if you aren´t online with your business, you´re really losing out on a lot of potential customers. But building a website for your business can be confusing and if you don´t do it properly, you will end up losing more traffic than you gain!
With the The Business Owner’s Guidebook to Web 2.0 Design and Promotion, you can learn everything you need to know about setting up a business website. Even if you already have one, this guide will explain everything you need to know to optimize your site for today´s internet. It´s a fast-changing medium, so it pays to stay up to date and on top of the newest techniques.
Want to know a bit more about this great guidebook? Listen to the audio file below for even more information, or you can pick up your own copy free on Small Business Mavericks.
Tags: business website, The Business Owner’s Guidebook to Web 2.0 Design and
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, March 28th, 2008
I recently updated my website, Small Business Mavericks and wanted to let you know, so you can check out the new features.
First of all, if you go to the main page, you´ll notice that there is a free ebook available, the Business Owner’s Guidebook to Website Design and Promotion. This is a great book that we are presenting because it can really help you turn your business website into a functioning sales site. If you have had any interest in making your existing website better or if you are still thinking about setting up a business website, the Business Owner’s Guidebook to Website Design and Promotion ebook can guide you through the process. Since it´s free, you have absolutely nothing to lose!
The other change has been to the Website Design and Promotion page on the site (see a trend here? Time to start thinking about getting your website up and running and promoting your business!). I would suggest that you stop by and check it out, get an idea of how we can help you. There is plenty of information on this webpage that could be very important for the future of your small business website.
Tags: *Small Business Mavericks, business website
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
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